Woman Finds Out You Can’t Live on Sunlight

You may have read about the woman in Seattle who decided to find out if she could live without food, subsisting only on water, tea and sunshine. The predictable answer: No, you can’t. So she’s ending the “experiment.” But she’s still demonstrating the complete lack of rationality that led her to try it in the first place.

After dropping about 20 percent of her body weight, Naveena Shine, the 65-year-old Eastside woman who got worldwide publicity for trying to just live on light and no food, is calling it quits with her grand experiment.

Monday was Day No. 45 of no food, just water and tea “with a splash of milk.”

Shine had dropped to 126 pounds from her original weight of 159 pounds on her 5-foot, 4-inch frame.

She says she’s quitting on Wednesday in part because she’s run out of money, and part because of the public reaction.

“I was just asking a question, but there was just so much negative response that that means the question can’t even be asked,” she said.

Uh, what? You did ask the question, despite being (rightly) mocked for it. And the answer was no, as any reasonable person could have told you (and did tell you). This is just gibberish. Another Darwin Award thwarted.

Wait, she ran out of money that she needed to supply … that splash of milk in her tea?

grumpyoldfart

She says she’s quitting on Wednesday in part because she’s run out of money

If she’s got no money she can’t buy food so why not continue with the experiment?

raven

She says she’s quitting on Wednesday in part because she’s run out of money, and part because of the public reaction.

Huh??? What!!!

She lived on sunlight and ran out of money? The sun should be free unlike food which you buy.

It takes some sort of talent to not spend money and run out of it anyway.

http://www.gregory-gadow.net Gregory in Seattle

@IslandBrewer #1 – There was much speculation that this was all just a publicity stunt to scam money. The fact that she is stopping because she’d “run out of money” seems to imply that what she thought would be a cash cow has gone dry.

“I was just asking a question, but there was just so much negative response that that means the question can’t even be asked,” she said.

People ask that question all the time and have for all of recorded history.

The last groups were in North Korea, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

They are called famines and the participants are called variously; starving people, victims, and…dead bodies.

CaitieCat

Clearly, she just needed more chlorophyll.

kantalope

And I think Ed needs to check his math…if “Shine had dropped to 126 pounds from her original weight of 159 pounds…” She’s 5’4″ and now weighs 33 lbs and if she is still breathin…this may actually be working.

“I was just asking a question, but there was just so much negative response that that means the question can’t even be asked,” she said.

This is the sort of tepid excuse I’ve come to expect from a lot of woos regarding scientific questions. They can’t handle adversity like adults, and science is pretty adversarial. You don’t just dismiss criticism for being “negative.” You deal with criticism as rationally as you can, using logic and evidence to answer it. That’s a part of what it means to ask controversial questions. Criticism is supposed to be expected. Brainstorming without criticism is good for generating new ideas, but sooner or later, you need to sort the good ideas from the bad, and that typically means having a two-way conversation with critics. When you speak, you are not entitled to uniform cheering.

A lot of the time, people with the consensus view reacts negatively because the idea in question has been tested and failed or is implausible for well-established reasons. And with ideas like hers, the most likely outcome was that she’d harm herself. I care about people, even if they do stupid things. I criticize precisely because I care and want to dissuade them from harmful action.

Here’s the kicker: If you don’t have answers to criticism, question the value of your idea. You might be the one who’s wrong.

I’m glad she stopped, though I’d prefer if she did so for rational reasons.

oranje

@9: Erm, what?

eric

“I was just asking a question,

Yes, that’s the problem. You should’ve proceeded from ‘asking the question’ to ‘researching the possible answers and evidence for them.’

Just asking the question is lazy and sloppy to the point of being anti-intellectual.

kantalope

oranje – uh oh I missed the “to” –stupid reading comprehension.

I was just asking questions and now I’m criticized – how unfair!

dukeofomnium

On the plus side, she can write a new book, “The Complete Sunshine Weight Loss Plan”

busterggi

Listen, I know the price of sunshine in my area has almost doubled in the past year but surely one of her friends must have a spare patch she could eat.

Johnny Vector

Well this is Seattle we’re talking about. Sunlight is a rare commodity there, and probably comes pretty dear.

Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

@16:

I was going to say, the money probably went for travel expenses to find places where the sun was actually shining.

http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

*Pbbt!* The experiment wasn’t even double-blind!

kantalope

So, she shouldn’t have known if she was not eating and then not know if she was exposed to sunlight?

Reginald Selkirk

Hercules Grytpype-Thynne #17: places where the sun was actually shining.

The creationists were right, and Shine has handily disproved evolution. If evolution was true, Shine would have evolved leaves. Chalk up another victory for empirical creationism!

Brain Hertz

She says she maxed out her credit cards buying such equipment as eight security cameras that she had installed in the trailer. She says they recorded her 24/7 to prove she wasn’t cheating on her no-food experiment.

Shine says she had hoped for contributions to help her defray costs, but that she had received only $425 in contributions through her website.

Huh. How about that.

coffeehound

“I was just asking a question, but there was just so much negative response that that means the question can’t even be asked,” she said.

So, yes, contrary to the old teacher’s meme there really are stupid questions.Really, was it even a thought that this was a complex conundrum in search of an answer?

mucklededun

“There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

And that’s my department.”

–Jean Philippe Souza

http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

“*Pbbt!* The experiment wasn’t even double-blind!”

I think that she might be blind enough for two people.

Did she hear “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves and just riff on it?

FWIW, another woman, a teh fullonBatshitKKKrazzeewoman–Missy Bachman–you may have heard of her, has that “Six degrees of Masturbation” thing (or whatever they call it) goin’ with Katrina and the Waves where her campaign was using “Walking on Sunshine” and were sent a cease&FUCKING STOP IT!! letter by K&tW’s lawyers.